Women and Degrees at Cambridge university, 1862=1897

In 1837 There were only four universities in england, none of them open to women. The continental challenge to Britain’s industrial might in the latter half of the nineteenth century lent urgency to demands from industrial centers for local universities attuned to their needs and willing to try educational experiments. By the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, there were twelve universities and university colleges, all of which educated women to degree level and awarded them degrees. ¹ Women were also allowed to study at Oxford and Cambridge, the oldest and most prestigious institutions; indeed, Cambridge was the first university to encourage women’s studies. Yet after taking the same examination as men, they were not awarded the degrees they had earned. They left the ancient foundations with curious pieces of paper known as “certificates of degrees” and with no letters after their names, often to meet with mistrust and misunderstanding from a suspicious world.